Something is pathologically, terminally and seriously wrong with our departmental adjudication
Justice Raghuram's article
A very very inspiring and motivating article from the President of CESTAT. The very sad part of the current dispensation is that, most of the most brilliant civil servants who join the IRS do not seem to understand that they are here to serve the taxpayers, at large. They use their brilliant brains to frustrate the adjudication process, rather than act in a fair and transparent manner, sadly though.
One can only recall that things were not this bad, at least a few years ago. We did have very good adjudication officers who used to pass very fair orders, under the then prevailing adjudication system which largely involved cases from central excise and customs. In fact, one recalls that most appeals would get settled at the level of the First Appellate Authority and we used to travel to Chennai (Madras, then) to attend these hearings.
The adjudication process has considerably worsened over the last few years, thanks to a very adversarial tax administration, with a hugely negative mindset. It would be foolish to expect that things would improve under the GST regime, as the very same Babus would administer the GST as well. In fact, in my view, the GST would combine the worst (not the best) features of the existing central and state indirect tax laws, to the detriment of the taxpayer.
India, is perhaps, the only country amongst comparable countries,that has such an adversarial tax administration. Hats off to the Indian companies which have still managed to survive under these extremely negative tax environment.
S Sivakumar, Advocate, Bangalore
SUBRAMANI SIVAKUMAR
20/01/2015
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